Listics

What’s not to love…

"I have a

grandson who’s already received a Purple Heart in Baghdad, and they
just put him back to duty. One Purple Heart wasn’t enough. I have a
long history of military men in my family. … I tried to go in the
Marines when I was 14 years old. I’m an American. Hell, I’m the guy who
wrote ‘Fightin’ Side of Me,’ and I just wish George Bush would step up
to the microphone and say, ‘Folks, it’s about oil.’ Just treat us like
adults. … That all I’m bothered about. I just hate to be lied to."

– Merle Haggard

Dan Gillmor will appear on Madison’s listener sponsored community radio station, WORT, this Friday between noon and 1pm US Central time.  He’ll be interviewed by Diane Farsetta, a senior researcher at the Center for Media and Democracy and the Friday host of WORT’s program, "A Public Affair."  Dan will talk about his newish book (among other things, I’m sure) "We the Media."  You can download and/or purchase the book here.

Diane has kindly invited a local blogger to join her following Dan’s segment.

Al Jazeera reports:

Ziad
Khasawna said on Wednesday that [Ramsey] Clark, who held the office of
attorney-general under US president Lyndon Johnson, had "honoured and
inspired" the legal team by agreeing to help defend Saddam.

Secular humanism is generally a good thing and fundamentalist religion is generally a bad thing.  Humanists are all about opening, broadening, inclusion.  Fundamentalists are about closing, narrowing, exclusion.  Humanists support distinctions without prejudice.  Fundamentalist distinctions create prejudice.

The label of "secular humanist" has some baggage attached to it based on the bad press it gets from true believers.  Much like the invidious distinction that Limbaugh laid on us around the phrase "tax and spend liberalism," secular humanism is, in some quarters, thought to be a bad thing, faithless, a position to be avoided.

For me it is easy to posit a metaphysical context beyond my understanding.  I’m pretty good in three spatial and one temporal dimension.  Beyond that, it starts to get metaphysical.  But so far it hasn’t required a god for me to grasp that there are limits to my sensoria and my understanding.  On the other hand, the concept of god, the joy, the love, the boundless concern and care we can share with each other, these things have a spiritual aspect that I enjoy.

In the United States, we assert a constitutional separation of church and state under the first and fourteenth amendments to the constitution.  There are those that would tear down this wall, people who assert that their biblical beliefs should be taught in public schools, and worse - that information contrary to their beliefs should NOT be taught, or should somehow be qualified as contrary to their precepts.

I think we should respect these people.  I think we should put all their churches’ property on our local property tax rolls and tax their churches’ income, and exercise eminent domain over any holdings that could be used for community purposes and respect their rights to have a say in the way our public schools are run.  They are, after all, citizens, and by putting their church property on the tax rolls they will have a stake in the game.

Here in Madison we have some lovely church properties that we could assess at a fair market value and improve our ability to fund the teaching of evolution, and the public health provision of sexual health care including birth control and abortions.

Mike is back after almost a month’s hiatus.  We miss him when he’s gone.  Anyway, he’s back with a holiday message.

The reason for fighting
| I never got straight | But I learned to accept it | Accept it with
pride | For you don’t count the dead | When God’s on your side.

BBC presents a three part special on how we got in this mess.  This is powerful journalism revealing truths about the Straussian neo-cons and the Islamic fundamentalists and how their intolerance of individualism, liberalism and modern society overlap.

I’m sorry I don’t know who referred me…

The Talking Dog says "Yes!"  And he ain’t no ventriloquist’s dummy.